Page 29 - FWG December Issue 2022

Today’s Child

for risky behaviour and for being impulsive well as their peers. This period of conflict There is also the matter of sleep. It
and irritable. This behaviour is attributed to is normal and may be less evident in teens has been extensively researched and
raging hormones, an increased sex drive with stronger self-esteem who come reported that teens have a different
and immaturity. from stable, supportive homes where the body clock to adults and require far more
communication channels are open. sleep. This is because their melatonin (a
Teenagers feel misunderstood and hormone made in the body that regulates
isolated. Their turmoil is often ridiculed. How teens interpret their world is based sleep cycles) rises and falls later in the day
As neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, on their changing social environment, than in adults. This explains teens being
author of Inventing Ourselves: The Secret the physical transformation their bodies able to party till the early hours of the
Life of the Teenage Brain, says: “It is not undergo and the shifting expectations morning.
socially acceptable to mock and demonise placed on them. These can contribute to
other sectors of society ... but it is strangely them feeling alienated. BRAIN DEVELOPMENT
acceptable to mock and demonise teenagers.” From the day we are born and throughout
Mood swings can be explained by the our childhood, the brain builds
On the one hand, teens seem to be doing interplay of psychological and physiological connections between neurons. It then
all they can to separate themselves from processes associated with maturing. starts to prune back (remove) redundant
their families in an effort to assert their Teenagers experience greater fluctuations neural pathways, allowing for more
independence. They often challenge in hormones and neurotransmitters such as efficient networks. This process makes a
authority and boundaries. Yet they crave serotonin (one of the feelgood hormones), child’s brain particularly malleable and
approval from the adults in their lives as GABA and cortisol, which affect mood. enables a baby to grow into a toddler.

Fourways Gardens • 27 • December 2022